What is IACE?
DAVID S. DOCKERY
A new Christian education network is poised to serve on a global scale. This new network, with nearly 60 charter members, is the International Alliance for Christian Education (IACE), and it will encompass a variety of educational institutions and organizations in the evangelical tradition.
We believe that the emergence and vital kingdom importance of Christian education as a global phenomenon calls for Christian educators in every global region and at all educational levels to affirm and unite around their mutual commitments to Christ-centeredness and confessional solidarity. Functioning as a network more so than an organization, IACE will seek to create collaborative partnerships and alliances to help connect all sectors of Christian education in a comprehensive manner in order to encourage people to work in a cooperative manner to address common challenges shared by all sectors.
As IACE Board Chair Ralph Enlow has so aptly stated, “IACE will seek to unify, synergize, and strengthen collective conviction around biblical orthodoxy and orthopraxy, cultural witness, scholarship, professional excellence, and resourcing of Christian education at all levels.” IACE will seek to provide enablement, connections, and collaborative opportunities for the various aspects of Christian education from early education through doctoral programs. Representatives from primary and secondary schools, gap year programs, Bible colleges, Christian comprehensive universities, divinity schools, and seminaries, in addition to organizations committed to intellectual discipleship and the support of Christian educational entities can be found among the charter members.
Those involved with IACE certainly recognize the existence of outstanding educational associations that already specialize in various areas of Christian education. The work of IACE is not intended to compete with or supplant such organizations. IACE will seek to be a network that represents all sectors of Christian education globally, complementing and partnering with existing organizations whenever possible. At the same time, IACE will be more focused than some other Christian education networks in light of the exclusive confessional composition of its institutions and partners.
IACE will pursue this calling primarily by means of leveraging and facilitating collective access to the existing strengths, resources, and services of its member networks through collaboration that builds mutual strength and advances the efforts of all. Coordinated initiatives will combine efforts to address the complex challenges of a secularized, specialized, pluralized, and privatized 21st century world. The goal of such efforts will include guiding entities toward faithful, effective, and efficient service while seeking to reduce duplication, thus enhancing their respective capacity to carry out the work of Great Commandment, Great Commission, and Cultural Mandate programs and partnerships. While aspirational aspects of the work of IACE will be developed over time, the focus of our efforts will concentrate in four areas:
Christ-Centered Convictions: IACE will seek to help IACE members and partners focus on the distinctive mission of Christian education by strengthening confessional commitments, Christian worldview focus, and shared efforts to reclaim and advance the best of the Christian intellectual tradition. The leadership of IACE institutions and partners will annually reaffirm commitments to the truthfulness of Holy Scripture and the transformational power of the gospel, affirming both the Nicene Creed and the Lausanne covenant.
Collaborative and Cooperative Partnerships: IACE will seek to create collaborative partnerships and network alliances to help connect all sectors of Christian education in a comprehensive manner in order to encourage people to work cooperatively to address common challenges shared by all sectors.
Cultural Engagement and Renewal: IACE will seek to prepare members for the ever changing and challenging 21st century context in which we live in North America and around the globe, including providing partners to support advocacy efforts as needed. IACE institutions and partners will seek to reflect a faithful Christian witness that reflects commitments to biblical orthodoxy and historic Christian teaching regarding cultural engagement and renewal of foundational social order, including marriage and family.
Communication, Encouragement, and Development Opportunities: IACE will seek to provide a context for meaningful fellowship and encouragement for institutional and organizational leaders. One aspect of this effort will include regular communication to members and partners regarding updates, scholarship, and research related to issues and trends to enable the work of Christian education. Other initiatives will include development opportunities for next generation leaders to be better prepared to serve both church and society in a more faithful and effective manner.
These commitments, along with the comprehensive nature of the IACE, provide the new alliance with a distinctive place in the Christian education world. IACE’s core-value convictions related to partnership, collaboration, and cooperation will be undergirded by the mutual affirmations of its members regarding the importance of confessional Christianity. Chief among these confessional tenets are an affirmation of the Triune God as Creator, Revealer, and Redeemer; the truthfulness and authority of Holy Scripture; and the uniqueness of Christ.
These commitments are also seen in a Christian worldview framework and the best of the Christian intellectual tradition (shaped and informed by the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Confession, and the contributions from a host of significant Christian thinkers through the years) and reflected in a dedication to the importance of Christian unity, the communion of saints, and the global church. This emerging fellowship will seek not only to advance and support a confessional approach to Christian education, but also to reflect an irenic spirit, a focus on educational theory and leadership development, a fostering of the relationship between schools, churches, and denominations, and a commitment to Christian unity (which is informed by an affirmation of the church as one, holy, catholic [universal], and apostolic).
We ask for your prayers for those involved with IACE. We trust God’s guidance, grace, favor, provision, and blessing for this effort. We invite you to join us as a member, affiliate, friend, or supporter. We recognize our need for the enablement of God’s Spirit and the encouragement of the people of God to advance the work of global Christian education in the 21st century. May God help us one and all.
David S. Dockery is president of the International Alliance for Christian Education